INF/MSME/R/10  
 
29 July 2019 
(19-4960) Page: 1/4 
 Original: English  
 
INFORMAL WORKING GRO UP ON MSMES  
OPEN -ENDED REGULAR MEETING  OF 28 JUNE 2019 
Summary of discussions  
The following communication , dated 26 July 2019, is being circulated at the request of the delegation 
of Uruguay.  
 
_______________  
 
 
The Informal Working Group (IWG) on MSMEs held its second open-ended regular meeting of the 
year on 2 8 June 2019. The meeting was chaired by Ambassador Cancela of Uruguay, Coordinator of 
the Informal Working Group  on MSMEs . 
 
The meeting followed the standing agenda adopted by the Group in November 2018, starting with 
a discussion of work under various clusters and concluding with objectives for MC12. A total of 
57 delegations1 attended the meeting, including five non -members  of the Group  (Cameroon; Haiti; 
Mauritius; South Africa; Thailand; and Trinidad and Tobago).  
 
1  THEMATIC WORK  
1.1  Transparency cluster  
1.1.1   MSME -related information in TPRs  
1.1.  The transparency cluster began with a discussion by Canada on their TPR proposal, 
co-sponsored by Argentina, Brazil, the Russian Federation and Uruguay (INF/MSME/W/1/Rev.2). 
Canada highlighted their most recent TPR government report as an example of how MSMEs can be 
addressed in a standard way within the TPR format  and suggested the develo pment of a searchable 
database of MSME s references in TPRs . 
1.2.  Members expressed strong support for  the proposal  and agreed to move forward  with voluntary 
and flexible principles  for addressing MSMEs more systematically in TPRs . Next steps include the 
development of a checklist that members can follow to make sure they include relevant MSME 
information in their Government  report  or in the documentation they submit to the Secretari at in 
preparation for the TPR Secretariat report,  as well as the establishment of a searchable database of 
past MSME TPR references . Members were encouraged to organize  another informal session before 
the end of July  in order  to finalize the checklist by early Sept ember  for it to be considered by the 
Group  at the next  meeting  in October . 
                                                
1 Argentina ; Australia; Austria; Bahrain , Kingdom of ; Brunei Darussalam; Cameroon ; Canada; Chile; 
China; Colombia; Costa Rica; Côte d’Ivoire; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Dominica; Ecuador; 
El Salvador; European Union; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Hong Kong, 
China; Hunga ry; Italy;  Korea, Republic of; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg ; 
Malaysia ; Malta; Mauritius ; Mexico; Netherlands; Nigeria; Norway; Pakistan; Panama; Paraguay; Peru; 
Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russian Federation; South Africa ; Switzerland; Chinese Taipei; 
Thailand ; Trinidad and Tobago ; United Kingdom;  Uruguay (non -member s of the Group  are in italics ). INF/MSME/R/10  
 
- 2 - 
 
  1.1.2   MSME s platform proposal  
1.3.  Mexico presented a proposal, co -sponsored by Guatemala and Uruguay, to create an online 
platform that would provide  information and  links to useful resources to help MSMEs participate in 
international trade  (INF/MSME/W/3/Rev.1 ). The platform proposed one s ection for MSMEs and one 
section for policy makers  with information on best practices, national support programs, and 
MSME -related databases from various sources. Mexico informed the Group that they had approached 
Saana consulting, who has funds from UK DFID, to f inance  the platform.  
1.4.  Member s were generally very supportive of the initiative  and agreed to move forward to flesh 
out the o perational details . Various issues remain to be clarified including how content would be 
agreed  and who would develop it , and where such a platform would be hosted.  Members were invited 
to continue discussing with the co -sponsors and elaborate  an updated proposal  by the time of  the 
next meeting . 
1.1.3   Access to information: Global Trade Helpdesk  
1.5.  A brief update of the Global Trade Helpdesk was given by Switzerland and the ITC. Switzerland 
called on members to actively support the initiative, including fin ancially. Currently, two of the four 
modules are live and a pilot project is under way in Paraguay, which will help to develop the Spanish 
language version of the website.   
1.6.  Members expressed continu ed support of the initiative and were encouraged to answer  the ITC 
surveys  that were issued in February  and to provide feedback. A proposal to present the new version 
of the Global Trade Helpdesk at this year's Public Forum has also been submitted by the moderators . 
1.1.4   Other issues  
1.7.  The Russian Federation presented a proposal on enhancing transparency in applied tariffs  to 
the Group , a proposal that was also raised  in the context of the Committee on Market Access and 
the Committee on Agriculture (JOB/MA/138 and JOB/AG/15). The Russian de legation noted  that the 
gap between bound and applied tariff rates creates  uncertainty and increased costs for MSMEs .  
1.8.  The Coordinator invited the Russian Federation to work with interested delegations to identify 
concrete proposals that the Group could pu sh within formal WTO Committees.  
1.2  Thematic cluster  
1.2.1   Trade finance  
1.9.  The Secretary of the Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance (WGTDF) briefed the Group 
on current work on MSMEs and trade finance carried out in the context of the WGTDF.  The WGTDF 
has been working on trade facilitation programmes developed by multinational development banks, 
as well as connecting local banks with international banks to improve trade finance gaps  for MSME s, 
particularly in LDCs.  The WGTDF also supported capacity building  programmes for trade finance, 
such as the ICC training academy. A WTO -IFC joint publication on trade finance and the compliance 
challenge would be launched on 3 July  during the Aid for Trade Global Review . 
1.10.   The Coordinator invited members of the Group to f ill the trade finance questionnaire presented 
at the 22 February meeting and to consider possible follow -up actions and joint work with the 
WGTDF.  
1.2.2   Trade f acilitation  
1.11.   OECD representatives presented the key findings of a report titled "Helping SMEs 
internati onalise through trade facilitation " to the Group  
(http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=TAD/TC/WP(201 8)24/FI
NAL&docLanguage=En ). Findings showed that trade facilitation reform can help reduce both fixed 
and variable costs , and SMEs benefit twice as much from reform s than large firms.  The Coordinator 
invited members to share good practices, develop possible recommendations for MC12 and think 
about a Group position that could be presented to the Committee  on Trade Facilitation . INF/MSME/R/10  
 
- 3 - 
 
  1.12.   A background note on de minimis  prepared by the Secretariat  was circulated to Members prior 
to the meeting  (INF/MSME/W/4 ). It was agreed that the Group would continue exchanging national 
experiences and good practices, but given the sensitivity of the issue, actual discussions would be 
kept for after MC12.  
1.2.3   Other iss ues 
1.13.   Members were invited to take note of a mapping of MSME -related language in RTAs  prepared 
by the Secretariat  (INF/MSME/W/6 ). The Coordinator also noted that a SME-specified search function 
had been inc luded  into the  WTO RTA database . The Coordinator suggested  putting in place a small 
working group to explore how the information contained in th e background  document prepared by 
the Secretariat could be exploited in view of MC12 . 
1.3  Analytical tools cluster  
1.14.   Regarding  the OECD Trade in Value Added  (TiVA) database , members agreed to develop 
language for inclusion in a Ministerial Declaration encouraging members to add firm size  information  
to their input -output tables used to calculate trade in value -added  to increase understanding of 
MSMEs ' role in value chains . 
1.4  Conceptual cluster  
1.15.   Discussions under the conceptual cluster focused on the "small business lens" principle 
presented by Canada at the February meeting.  The European Commission and the Russian 
Feder ation presented similar principles they have in place to ensure that new legislation does not 
impose an undue burden on MSMEs , namely the Small Business Act and the Regulatory Impact 
Assessment (RIA) procedure s. Members also had, as a basis for discussion,  a note prepared by the 
Secretariat on an OECD report on good regulatory practices  (INF/MSME/W/5 ). The Coordinator 
invited interested members to develop language on this issue for inclusion in a Ministerial 
Declaration.  
2  REVIEW OF OUTREACH ACTIVITIES  
2.1  Outreach to other WTO Members  
2.1.  The Coordinator briefed members of the Group on his recent outreach efforts, including his 
participation in a meeting of the LDC Group and in a WTO Accessions seminar. He invited m embers 
of the Group to step up their interventions in other committees by making references to the work 
the Group  has been doing.  
2.2  Outreach to other organizations  
2.2.  Representatives of the OECD presented the work of t he OECD  Working Party on SMEs and 
Entrepreneurship  (WPSMEE) . The Working Party aims to increase awareness about the need for a 
level playing field for SMEs.  The Working Party  deliver ed a flagship report in 2019 named  "OECD 
SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook" (https://doi.org/10.1787/34907e9c -en) and also performs  
regular country -level research and analysis  on SMEs . The Coordinator encouraged members  to 
closely follow the work done in partner  organizations like t he OECD in order to build  synergies  on 
MSME work.  
2.3.  The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) introduced their ongoing efforts  between  the 
private sector, public sector and SME world , and invited the Group to participate in  their Telecom 
World Conference that will take place in September 2019. Members  were invited  to consider 
organizing a n SME-focused  session during the event.  
2.4.  The Global Trade Professionals Alliance (GTPA)  presented the concept note of their white paper  
on capacity building and standards development for inclusive trade  in which  good practices from 
several countries  were mapped  (https://www.gtpalliance.com/trends -transforming -
trade/engagement -opportunity -gtpa-inclusive -trade -white -paper ). Interested members were 
invited to engage with the GTPA  and discuss potential collaborations.  INF/MSME/R/10  
 
- 4 - 
 
  2.3  Outreach to the private sector  
2.5.  The Coordinator briefed  the Group on the World Chamber s Congress h eld in Rio de Janeiro on 
12-14 June. The MSME Ideas Exchange platform was launched at the meeting and members were 
encouraged to register and participate  in discussions with the private sector . 
REVIEW OF MSME -RELAT ED DISCUSSIONS IN WT O COMMITTEES, WORKIN G GROUPS AND 
PROGRAMMES  
2.6.  The Government Proc urement (GPA) Committee Chair, Mr. Carlos Vanderloo of Canada,  
discussed their work programme on SMEs, agreed to in 2012, which looks to support SME tenders 
for government procurement  – by reducing document complexity or qualification  requirements – 
and to make information available online. Strong synergies between the Group  and the work of the 
Committee on Government Procurement were noted.  
2.7.  The Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee shared updates on transparency discussions 
in the Committee as well as efforts to alert sectoral associations of upcoming TBT changes to make 
business, including SMEs, aware of potential impacts.  
3  ROAD TO MC12  
3.1.  The Coordinator invited members to start developing a set of reco mmendations for inclusion 
in a Ministerial Declaration. Two types of recommendations are envisaged: recommendations to be 
taken at the level of the WTO, which could be of an operational or of a policy nature, and those 
addressed to national policymakers, w hich could aim at ensuring MSME -friendly implementation of 
WTO agreements. The Coordinator encouraged members to develop draft language by 
mid-September on various issues, including TPRs, access to information, good regulatory practices, 
cyber readiness, a nd the inclusion of firm size data in trade in value -added databases , and to think 
about other areas that could be covered in a future work programme (e.g. trade facilitation, rules of 
origin ). 
4  NEXT STEPS  
4.1.  Members were invited to develop draft language  for a Ministerial Declaration  by 
mid-September . Interested  members were also encouraged to take the lead on different topics 
through informal meetings before the next meeting of the Group  in October . Inputs would then be 
consolidated in a Chair's text  to be discuss ed at the November meeting.  
4.2.  Members were invited to finalize  a checklist of MSME issues that could be covered in TPRs 
either through Government or Secretariat reports, or independently for t hose members not 
undergoing a TPR in the following years.  
4.3.  Members were invited to work together to develop a fully -fledged proposal with Mexico  for a 
public WTO MSME information  platform  before the next meeting of the Group . 
4.4.  Members were encouraged to submit ideas of questions for the  private sector to be addressed 
on the  MSME Ideas Exchange platform.  
4.5.  The next regular meeting of the Group will take place on 1 -2 October 2019.  
 
__________